The Spotlight: T-Pain

It seems unbelievably trite to think that Auto-Tune used to be one of the most polarizing controversies in music. The audio processing program—which measures and alters vocal pitches for a more tuned, albeit robotic sound—became something of a staple in late ’00s hip-hop and R&B. Younger artists embraced the program, while old-school traditionalists bemoaned its use as something that helped otherwise untalented singers sound like they had pipes. The most glaring examples of this dispute was Jay-Z’s 2009 song “D.O.A. (Death of Autotune),” released while his once-protégé Kanye West embraced Auto-Tune on the classic 808s & Heartbreak.

Nowadays, people are over it. Artists such as Future, Travis Scott and any number of Soundcloud rappers use Auto-Tune so much that it’s hardly noticeable. This makes me feel bad for artists like T-Pain. No musician became more synonymous with Auto-Tune than the Florida rapper and singer. And while he banged out countless hits in his heyday (“Bartender,” “A Million Times” and “Buy U a Drank,” to name a few), he was often looked at as something of a farcical character, representing the cheapening of the hip-hop genre (also see: The Black Eyes Peas, LMFAO, etc.). And yeah, that silly top hat he used to wear didn’t really help.

The problem was that T-Pain could actually sing. In 2014, he blew everyone away with an Auto-Tune-less Tiny Desk Concert that went viral. And who can forget how fun he was on The Lonely Island’s video for “I’m On a Boat”? And I’d argue that he was writing some female empowering, body-positive hits (have you listened to “I’m N Luv [Wit a Stripper] lately?) at a time when Jay-Z was probably still in Becky’s hoetation. So yeah, T-Pain was something of a pioneer and deserves any career renaissance he has coming to him.